SAVE money travelling from Horley to London – by buying a ticket from further afield Gatwick.
Due to a discrepancy in Southern Rail's fares, a yearly ticket from Gatwick to London, including zones 1-6, is up to £600 cheaper than the same ticket from Horley or Salfords.
The anomaly was branded a "nonsense" by Reigate MP Crispin Blunt and slammed by local commuters.
Robin Grant, chairman of the Reigate, Redhill and District Rail Users Association, said: "It is unfair that to get the best fare, people have to know to ask for a ticket from a different station rather than one for the journey."
Southern spokesman Chris Hudson said while cheaper Gatwick fares are limited to either Southern or First Capital Connect services, tickets from Horley and Salfords allow use of any trains.
The problem is only Southern trains use those stations. "You could take your any route permitted ticket and wait for a non Southern train at Horley," Mr Grant said. "But you could be waiting for years."
Travellers are well within their rights to buy the cheaper ticket from the further station.
The discrepancy is not limited to annual tickets. A seven-day ticket from Gatwick to London, including zones 1-6 but limited to Southern trains, would cost £87.90 but an "all services" ticket from Horley or Salfords – where travellers can only use Southern trains anyway – costs £93.70.
Reigate MP Crispin Blunt said the disparity must be investigated, adding: "If there is an obvious inequality which means that people living in Salfords find it cheaper to buy a ticket from further south then that needs explaining," he said. "It would plainly be a nonsense."
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